Amino Acids and Peptides as Functional Components in Arylenediimide-Based Molecular Architectonics

Molecular architectonics has its essence in custom design and engineering of molecular assemblies by judicious exploitation of the noncovalent forces to construct ordered architectures with novel properties and functions. The art of mastering the programmed molecular assemblies is a challenging task owing to complex factors that govern recognition events at the molecular level. In this context, biomolecules with in-built information for molecular recognition are capable of guiding the molecular architectonics to construct nano, micro, and macro-architectures with functional properties and applications. In particular, amino acids and peptides are attractive auxiliaries to guide the controlled molecular self-assembly, coassembly, heterostructures and living assembly systems of functional molecules in the scheme of molecular architectonics. Use of these exquisite biomolecular auxiliaries to master the art of engineering the molecular assembly of functional aromatic units viz., arylenediimides has been a continuous effort in the emerging field of molecular architectonics. In this accounts article, we outline the amino acid and peptide functionalized arylenediimide-based designer molecular systems as functional modular units developed by our group and others with an objective to demonstrate the concept of molecular architectonics to construct functional nano, micro and macroarchitectures with wide range of properties and applications.